Cooper Tire, Yulex consortium nabs USD-6.9m govt grant for biofuel research

Jul 11, 2012 - US Yulex Corp said today it had won, in a consortium led by Cooper Tire & Rubber Co (NYSE:CTB), a USD-6.9-million (EUR 5.6m) four-year grant to develop methods to use guayule natural rubber for the making of tires and biofuel.

The funds are coming from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) under the recently presented USD-30-million initiative to support the research and development of technologies and processes for the production of alternative biofuels and bio-based products.

Cooper Tire's consortium, to include firms, universities, and the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA, will develop guayule processes seeking to open commercialisation opportunities in the tire sector in the future. The remaining biomass of the guayule plant will be used as feedstock for biofuel production. Guayule crop science firm Yulex will make the material for the research project.

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